Burton Snowboards is "donating 500,000 respirator masks to hospitals across the Northeast, harnessing the company's worldwide footprint to help put a dent in the country's lagging stockpile." The first 48,000 masks have been "delivered and are earmarked for hospitals across Vermont and for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire." The rest are "scheduled to arrive within the next two weeks and will be distributed along the East Coast; at least half will go to particularly hard-hit areas of New York and Boston." Company CEO Donna Burton Carpenter said that she is "using her own funds for the masks" (AP, 4/8). Meanwhile, CCM Hockey is teaming up the Capitals' Alex Ovechkin and Penguins' Sidney Crosby to donate 500,000 surgical masks to hospital workers in Canada (CCM).
TEAM DONATIONS: The NFL Cardinals and State Farm are donating over 1 million meals that will be distributed to five non-profit organizations throughout the Phoenix area (Cardinals)....The Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation is "donating school supplies filling 500 backpacks -- 200 each to State Police barracks in Allegheny and Somerset counties and 100 to ACH Clear Pathways in the Hill District" (TRIBLIVE.com, 4/8).
INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVES: Buccaneers QB Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen will "pay for 750,000 meals" in a donation to Feeding Tampa Bay (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 4/9)....TCU football coach Gary Patterson and his wife, Kelsey, "gifted $50,000 to support the 'Frog Family Crisis Fund'" (Ft. Worth STAR-TELEGRAM, 4/9)....Wizards G Bradley Beal "donated $100,000 to St. Louis-area food banks" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 4/9)....The Jim and Tabitha Furyk Foundation is "making a $100,000 donation to Baptist Health to use for the purchase of PPEs for doctors and nurses" (FLORIDA TIMES UNION, 4/9)....Lightning Better Halves, a group of Lightning players’ wives and girlfriends, "donated food to the staff at Tampa General Hospital, in partnership with LS Organics." They "brought 100 meals and 75 wellness juice shots from the Tampa meal service" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 4/9).
GIVING BACK: The NFL Player Care Foundation yesterday announced a COVID-19 Disaster Relief Fund in which NFL alumni may be eligible for $2,000 emergency grants as early as next week. The fund will assist eligible alumni who have experienced a coronavirus-related financial setback such as loss of employment income or COVID-19 medical expenses (NFL Player Care Foundation)....Fidelity Sports Group and Dick’s Sporting Goods worked together to coordinate a donation of 200 Frogg Togg suits to healthcare workers in Huntsville, Ala., after learning the raingear was high enough quality to protect doctors and nurses in the fight against COVID-19 (Fidelity).
